Emily St John Mandel and China Mieville

Bestselling authors, China Mieville and Emily St John Mandel go head to head in a war of the words...

They join Joe Haddow for a chat about their work, inspirations and new novels.

'The Rouse' by China Mieville is a sprawling, epic saga (1200 pages in length). He talks to Joe about what can be achieved in a long novel, how the writing process is different, how he kept continuity - and - why it has taken 20 years to write.

'Exit Party' by Emily St John Mandel is a dystopian novel of crimes committed and loves lost across worlds and decades. She talks about why she set it in a very near future, bringing characters back from previous novels and 'The Mandelverse'.

THE BOOK OFF 'Monkey Beach' by Eden Robinson VS 'Sleight' by Kirsten Kaschock

And here's a little more info on our guests' brilliant books:

'The Rouse' by China Mieville Maur’s life has been shaped by an unbearable loss. But in the aftermath of what is an apparently ordinary tragedy, deeper, stranger questions arise . . . Their answers may lie within the dark heart and darker history of an old soldier who shares Maur’s obsessions – and is violently pursued by the same unknown, unquiet forces.

So begins The Rouse, a masterpiece unlike any other: at once a sprawling saga of the bloody twentieth century, and the intimate story of two lives, their loves, regrets and secrets – and a terrifying journey into infinite mystery.

'Exit Party' by Emily St John Mandel Los Angeles, 2031: The first spring after the collapse of the United States, peacekeeping troops withdraw from the city, the Jacaranda trees blossom, and the curfew is finally lifted. Ari Waker and her roommate pass the gauntlet of bomb-sniffing dogs, the shanty towns, and the Red Cross tents as they walk across Silverlake to a party. The mood is ecstatic inside the apartment, people drink and dance, a woman wears a silver dress, pleated like tinfoil. And then: A shift. A bewildered twin, an uncanny doppelganger stumbles through the crowd and out into the night, and Kareem, the party’s host, vanishes into thin air.

As Ari Waker unravels the mystery of this inexplicable night, Emily St. John Mandel unfurls a story that takes us from a future America splintered by civil war to the seaside cliffs of Greece where weapons dealers hide in an elegant resort, and from the domed city of Paris to a colony on the moon. An unforgettable literary feat, Exit Party is a novel about the price of safety, the perils of the surveillance state, a requiem for a world not unlike our own, and a breathtaking story of resilience in the face of cataclysmic change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.